‘TWD’: What Did the Red Letter on Daryl’s Shirt Mean?

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon – The Walking Dead _ Season 6, Episode 14 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Fans who watched The Walking Dead tonight are wondering about a certain uniform that Daryl was forced to wear. What did it mean? This article contains spoilers through Season 7 Episode 3, so proceed with caution.

Here’s what you need to know.

Over and over again during the episode, we saw people wearing white outfits with letters painted on them. Daryl was also forced to wear one of these shirts or uniforms. What did the letter “A” on Daryl’s shirt mean?

Fans have a few theories.

You may have noticed that the people moving the zombies had similar shirts with different letters spray painted on them. In addition, some zombies in the fenced in yard also were wearing the shirts. These shirts might serve similar to patches and other means of identifying people in Holocaust concentration camps. The “uniform” might have served as a way of helping these newcomers see that they weren’t that different from the people who were being punished or killed — a reminder that not much separated them from such a gruesome fate.

It also appears that people who aren’t wholly sold out for Negan are wearing those spray-painted uniforms. Daryl is wearing one and he is in the “breaking in” phase. It’s possible that the people wearing these are either still being broken in or are working on Negan’s points-based system because they hadn’t sold out completely him.

As for the meaning of the letters themselves, that’s hard to decipher at this point. Daryl’s big red “A” is a reminder of The Scarlet Letter, which served a similar purpose of setting someone apart from the community. But each individual letter might also have its own meaning. It might serve as a form of a name, before someone takes on Negan’s identity. So perhaps it’s a step in the direction of losing your identity. Or it might show what “stage” in the process a person is in. These are all theories that fans are suggesting.

What do you think the letters mean?

Source: Stephanie Dube Dwilson